It’s that time of year again. The time of year when 38% of Americans resolve to lose weight, and 34% make money-related resolutions. Despite these lofty goals, only 8% of Americans will actually achieve their New Year’s resolution.
The old standard resolution to “spend less, save more” is a wise choice, but perhaps a bit too vague. The best resolutions are specific and actionable. Rather than spend less, you could resolve to cut out your daily trip to Starbucks and brew coffee yourself instead. That in and of itself will result in spending less and saving more.
In the spirit of helping you come up with specific, actionable new years resolutions, here are a few ideas that will help you raise your credit score in 2015.
I Resolve to Protect Myself Against Identity Thieves
The majority of identity theft is preventable. That’s because would-be thieves prefer to go after the low-hanging fruit: consumers who are careless with their personal information.
To avoid having your credit wrecked by identity theft this year, resolve to secure your personal information at home and online. Here are a few ideas:
- Create strong, unique passwords for all online accounts
- Organize and find a safe, secure place to store documents like tax records
- Resolve to never share financial or identifying info on social media
- Educate your children on appropriate and safe online behavior
I Resolve to Create a Budget
A budget is your ticket to savings. Rather than make a goal to save money, resolve to put a budget in place that will actually achieve that goal.
Everyone’s situation is different, and so you’ll have to come up with a budget that works for your family. Thankfully, there are many budgeting tools and apps that can help make things simpler, such as mint.com and Spendee.
I Resolve to Make a Plan to Pay Off Current Debt
Paying off debt is a sure-fire way to raise your credit score. The best way to pay off debt fast is to come up with a strategy. Here are two possible strategies you can take:
- Zero in on your cards with the highest interest rate and pay those off first
- Focus on paying off your credit cards with the lowest balances first
I Resolve to Enroll In Automatic Bill-Pay
Part of raising your credit score is avoiding the pitfalls that will erase all your gains. One thing that can lower your score almost immediately is a missed payment. Unfortunately, all it takes is some absent-mindedness to result in a missed payment that will be hurting your credit score for years to come.
One convenient way to avoid missing a monthly payment is to enroll in an automatic bill-pay program. Virtually all credit cards offer this service, as do many other bills such as public utilities and car payments. All it takes is a few minutes to set it up, and you can stop worrying about past-due bills.
I Resolve to Know What’s In My Credit Report
You’ll never know how good your credit is, or how to improve it, unless you know and understand what is actually in your credit report. While many companies will try to sell you your credit report, you are authorized by federal law to receive one free copy of your credit report per year (which you can request here).
Millions of Americans have errors in their credit reports, and about half of those errors are actually hurting their credit. By disputing errors yourself, or hiring a credit repair company, you can clean up your score and potentially raise it substantially.
Please feel free to take on one of these New Year’s resolutions, or come up with your own combination or completely new resolution. If you stick with your resolution this year, come January 2016 you’ll be enjoying a vastly improved credit score (and all the benefits that come with it)!
Photo Courtesy of Bezza84 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons
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